Hi,
I wished that I could come back here and post that I scored 800 but it was not to be. But I am rather pleased that I managed the 99 percentile mark. (Q 51, V 41)
For anyone who is interested the following are my strategies -
Material
1) OG 11.
2) OG Quant and Verbal supplement.
3) Test subscription from Manhattan.
If you ask me these are all that are required. OG is the best source for both understanding concepts and applying them. I used OG 11 to understand what GMAT asks for and the supplement as a mini GMAT test.
MGMAT tests are very accurately predictors of your performance. Though the types of question asked and the adaptation model seem a little different that actual GMAT. GMAT question increase in complexity quite slowly (my feeling) but MGMAT jumps quite fast.
Still the scales scores from MGMAT and that from GMAT turn out about the same.
But the fun part of MGMAT is the forums.
The best advice I can give you is take part in the forums. Keep posting you views, opinions and your solutions.
2 reasons to do so.
1) If you post you would typically do some research into the problem (come on no wants to look like a fool in the WWW), the research you do will open newer possiblities and if you do so I can guarantee that you will never forget the particular concept.
2) IF you do post a wrong explanation, many will score against you (human nature - finding fault is much easier). It is unlikely that you forget the concept which made you look like a fool in the WWW :wink: .
Thanks to Ron, Rey and Stacey for great comments, brilliant analysis and very patient hearing
I wish I had posted more in verbal. BTW these posts are a good practice for essays. I you write a good post for a CR question, you just wrote one of the AWA essays.

I know that many of us consider ourselves to be smart. But understand that GMAT is very smart. It is smarter that the combined smartness of all the smart people who take the test. Yes true, by pretesting each question GMAT knows well in advance how smart the questions are and thus how smart the person is who answers the question correctly. There is only one way to beat GMAT and that is to understand the concept tested (thankfully there are only a few). There is no shortcut or trick that will work in actual GMAT.
Timeline
I prepared for about 2.5 months and used only the material listed above. I started off with a score of 660 in my first MGMAT CAT. Started scoring in the 730 range with about a month's preparation, but the final 30 from 730 to 760 took more than a month. The last GMAT Prep I took a week before the test, I got exactly the same scores as I did in the actual one. I work full time and have a child to provide pleasant distraction. My normal study hours were 10 Pm to 1 PM. The only weekends I studied were the ones in which I took tests.
Finally a word of caution be aware of potential over preparation. I know it sounds weird but about 2 week before the test I was feeling fatigued and wished I had taken an earlier date. Thankfully the wait period for me was small else my performance might have gone down.
Thanks for reading

Most important,
Enjoy the whole process of preparing for GMAT. After all its just another test in a life full of tests.

Great Score! Many Congrats and Wish you all the very best for your next steps.

Cheers
-Sudhan

Hi Captain, very well done. Congratulations!! Amazing score. No wonder you could answer all my posts so accurately.

I havent bought the GMAT verbal and quant supplements but I am thinking of buying one now. I have OG11, MGMAT SC and Kaplan Premier. It was assuring to know that you could hit such a high score even though you used very selective resources and that proves that depth and not breadth matters.

To be honest, I am struggling with scores of around 620 at the moment and really doing all I can to push my scores up to 700. My verbal scores are hovering between 35 and 40 and I guess that is what is pulling the overall score down. Also, I guess once I do more full length tests, my stamina and concentration will improve. At the moment, my concentration starts giving away once I reach midway of Verbal. I am hoping that in the next month or so, my scores will improve further. Suggestions would be greatly appreciated, if there are any.

Enough of my problems. So when do you start applying and what schools are you targeting? Congratulations once again!

viksnme, thanks.
I dont know how much time you have before the GMAT. But I am describing how I studied.
1. Start with the questions in OG 11. Dont time yourself. Take as much time as required to answer the question. But write down everything which goes inside your head. Write why you think option 'a' in SC is incorrect, write - 'Verb 'x' is in plural so it does not agree with subject 'y''. Do the same for CR and RC
Imagine you are the author of OG 11 and you are explaing the answers to the students.
I dont think you will need to do this for all questions but do it for any question you have doubts. The more you do the more confident you will be.
By the end of each section in OG you will be able to do all these things in you head without even thinking.
Read the official explanation and try to see if your thoughts were correct. If something confuses you dont leave till you have nailed the exact principle/reason involved. Use all the material you have to figure out why the answer is correct/incorrect.
Unfortunately you cannot ask OG questions in this forum but you will find parallels in MGMAT CAT and in GMAT Prep. Try to post solutions to problems others are asking.

2. Develop good habits such as making abcde grid for every question and crossing off the wrong ones.
Another good one is to practice at a stretch for 3 hours. That way you are working the same hours as you would in tests.
Dont tick/cross the answers in the book. Use a seperate sheet for scratch work and another one for writhing the answers. In GMAT you can not cross the wrong ones on the computer.

3. I used supplements to OG in later stages as timed mini tests. Use MGMAT OG timer. I did about 10 questions in each category in about 2 hours. Spent the next 1-2 hours analyzing all the questions.

I took GMAT well in advance so that I can research the schools with the score in my pocket. No yet decided on target schools.
Hope this help in your preparation. All the best!!

Hi Captain,
Congrats on a great score !!!!
Can you please tell me how to use the MGMAT OG timer ??? Where do I get that because though my accuracy is pretty decent, I am not able to manage the time ???